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A 5 page essay that, first of all, defines satire (including sub-categories) and then analyzes three examples of satire in literature by Washington Irving, Jonathan Swift and W. H. Auden. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khsat3.rtf
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with the intent of initiating social correction (Weinbrot, 1980). Romans are credited with inventing satire, and the two main branches of the genre are formal and informal. The two
formal types of satire are Horacian and Juvenalian. Horacian satire is the milder of the two forms, and employs a "gentle, sympathetic" in its critique of social situations (Weinbrot, 1980,
p. 322). Juvenalian satire is harsher in tone and is, in general, "angry and biting," using words that "tear to the bone" with contempt and moral indignation at the corruption
of humanity (Weinbrot, 1980, p. 322). The following examples of satire demonstrate how widely divergent satire can be, in style and content. Americas first great satirist was Washington Irving.
In such works as "Rip Van Winkle" and Dietrich Knickerbockers A History of New York, From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1809), Irving
produced the first great satirical work of comic imagination in America (Cook, 1995). In particular, the Knickerbocker History is a "high spirited burlesque of antiquarian learning and local history that
both celebrates and spoofs the legendary half century of Dutch colonization in the New World" (Cook, 1995, p. 483). In this work, Irving lampoons Enlightenment philosophy, historiography, and political
science using comic motifs borrowed from writer such as Rabelais, Shakespeare, and Swift (Cook, 1995). The student researching this topic will note that Irvings style of satire is Horacian, in
that his ridicule is both gentle and sympathetic towards the Dutch and the Dutch heritage. He is not specifically addressing a grievous ill that needs to be righted. Swift, on
the other hand, wished to shame the British into action when he wrote A Modern Proposal, one of the most famous works of satire in literary history, and
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